Treasury Secretary Paulson

Via RCP.

VERY interesting article on Treasury Secretary Paulson. Explains how he was talked into the job by fellow Goldman-Sachs alum and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and only took the job with assurances that he would be able to run the department without much interferance from the administration. Paulson has a lot of clout on Wall Street, and is very influental on trade, particularly with regard to China, and has openly expressed a free trade message.

The article also indicates that while tax policy and reform appear to be OFF next year's agenda (unfortunately, in my opinion) there does appear to be some degree of support for entitlement reform, particularly on the Medicare/Medicaid front as opposed to Social Security.

Paulson apparently has a good working relationship with Clinton Treasury Secretatry Rubin. While I'm not a big fan of Rubin (he's stuck to some degree on Keynesianism, and I'm in TOTAL oppostion to his tax policy ideas), he is influential in Democratic circles and having him on board would certainly help get something passed in a Democratic controlled Congress.